Democracy was achieved by such a long, arduous and heroic struggle that it can feel embarrassing - even shameful - to feel a little disappointed by it.

One of the most depressing aspects of travel is finding that the world often looks the same in many different places. The towers of downtown Tokyo are indistinguishable from those of Frankfurt or Seattle.

There is something compelling and exciting about cities that makes many of us love them. They are full of bright attractions, intriguing strangers and endless, unimaginable possibilities.

Perhaps you never had such a figure in your life, but let's imagine for a moment what a good mother might have been like: when you were a baby, you cried at 3am and she got up to comfort you until you eventually found your way back to sleep an hour later.

People living in pleasant rural towns across the south of England, places like Chipping Norton and Ashford, are horrified by government aspirations to build thousands of new homes in the surrounding fields – to satisfy enormous public demand.

The system we know as Capitalism is both wondrously productive and hugely problematic. On the downside, capitalism valorises immediate returns over long-term benefits.

We generally hold culture - by which we understand art, museums, cinema, literature and the study of history - in extremely high regard. But, equally, we tend not to look very closely at why culture has such prestige.

Serious people are used to thinking badly of 'celebrity culture' and serious news outlets are even more badly disposed towards stars like Justin and Miley, Tamara and Paris.

To the frustration of many sophisticated people, the postcard of Claude Monet's pretty and sweet Japanese footbridge has topped a survey of the world's best selling art postcards on sale in museums in thirty countries.

The world needs changing in all sorts of urgent ways: the great question is how to do it. The most popular and appealing answer has long been that one should try to write a book.

The most boring question one can ever direct at a religion is to ask whether or not it is ‘true’. Of course, none of its supernatural claims can ever be ‘true’ - but that may not be a reason to dismiss it.

We believe in censorship. Sometimes. Of course, that's a very unpopular view these days; censorship looks small-minded, defensive and the enemy of a hard-won freedom to express oneself without interference.

President Obama was out the other week inspecting the navy at the largest US mainland base in Norfolk, Virginia. A month ago, he was out